Deuteronomy 9:1-6 – When God Brings All the Pieces Together

A few days ago, I had written a blog about the fact that Clemson’s national championship was so much sweeter this time than it was in 1981. I am older now and had suffered through the mediocre years of Clemson football between 1992-2008. That’s what makes this one sweeter is knowing what those years were like where being nationally relevant football program was a whisp in the air and a memory of the glory years (1977-1991) of the past. In that blog, I talked about how all the pieces of the puzzle of making a national championship caliber football program must come together simultaneously. What makes football programs relevant over long stretches depends on good recruiting, player development, great coaches, a seriously supportive fan base and so on. All of those things must be aligned at the same time for that to happen. Clemson has it right now. It has lasted the last six years (with six straight 10+ win seasons, three conference titles, a national finalist team last year, and a national championship team this year) and we, as the Tiger Nation, believe it will last a while longer. As Dabo said Monday night, this is not the end, there is more to come. When you look at recruiting and the players that are coming back, the Tigers are set to be nationally relevant for at least the next several years. We must enjoy these glory days because it may be five years from now or it may be 10 years from now, but it will come to an end at some point. It will! So, we must enjoy this alignment of the stars in just right order while it lasts. Coaches leave, coaches get older and less relevant to the kids, controversies, changes in school leadership, losing those close ones instead of winning them, starting to miss out on those top recruits. It all can combine to change what was once working great and it starts slipping away.

It reminds me that God is sovereign and that he brings that right people together at the right place and the right time to be together and work like a well-oiled machine together. It is He that orchestrates that. It can be true in football programs and it can be true in business settings. Some businesses are great for long stretches because God brings the right people together at the right time to make the company wildly successful. The same is true in churches, too. As I explained to someone last night and also in a recent phone conversation too, each church in existence has a purpose in God’s kingdom. God uses each church to accomplish a purpose in reaching the complete spectrum of human personalities out there. So, as we sit here writing and you reading, what is it that makes some churches more successful at accomplishing that task than others. I think it first starts with humble leadership and humble congregations. We all must be submitted to the Lord and following His calling. None of it can be about us but rather everything must be reaching the lost souls of the world with the good news of Jesus Christ. Everything must be in pursuit of that.

Then, that’s when God shows out. He brings the right people together at the right time to accomplish His goals and desires. It is nothing but a God thing when you watch how He brings the right people to a church’s leadership team. He will bring what’s needed to a church that is humbly ready to serve Him. He will bring the right layleaders who are passionate and bought-in to the mission of this particular church. He will bring the right employees and pastors to the church that have the right skill sets and strengths that are needed to make a well-rounded team. Then, man, does it take off! When you have the right people in the right seats at the right time and there’s this chemistry that builds over time between the staff and pastors of such a church. It is amazing to watch. There is that moment in time where the team is optimized and things are clicking, people are being drawn to the church, souls are being saved through the power of the Holy Spirit, lives are being changed by Jesus Christ, and the pastors and the staff just seem to be doing and saying the right things all the time. It can become very easy to say that it is because of us, the pastors and staff, that things are clicking along so well. But, that’s when you have to look back at all the amazing things that God has done – how He has brought the right people together at this right place at this, the right time to accomplish what God has set forth to accomplish in this place at this time with these people. When that right time is done or when God has a new task for a church, a new direction, this collection of talent that He brought together for a specific purpose at this place at this time will begin to move on. A new group of “right people at the right place at the right time” will develop to accomplish God’s new assignment.

That’s why I relish the moment of the last six years at LifeSong. You’ve to relish the moment or you will miss it. So many things have been accomplished in the last six years and God certainly has blessed LifeSong. He has brought together an amazing group of pastors, staff and lay leaders that make LifeSong an amazing church. This collection of people, through submission to the Holy Spirit, are accomplishing the current assignment of God to reach the unchurched and the dechurched people in the Lyman-Duncan-Wellford, SC area. We are a great team together. You just want it to last forever. Just like I wish these current glory days of Clemson football will last forever. We have such great chemistry on staff and we have committed, all-in pastors, and we have some amazing church members that are just as sold-out, willing to do anything to advance the name of Jesus kind of people. Everything goes in cycles though. God will do what God wants done. He will direct LifeSong where He wants it to go. He will change the assignment of the church at some point to meet a new level of needs and He will change the mix of people on staff, as pastors, and as church members. So, we stand right now. We relish the moment knowing that what we have right now may not last forever because it is God’s church and He will do with it what He will.

Those moments in time where God brings everything together is what I thought about this morning and how it is Him who orchestrates that not us when I read this passage, Deuteronomy 9:1-6:

9 Hear, Israel: You are now about to cross the Jordan to go in and dispossess nations greater and stronger than you, with large cities that have walls up to the sky. 2 The people are strong and tall—Anakites! You know about them and have heard it said: “Who can stand up against the Anakites?” 3 But be assured today that the Lord your God is the one who goes across ahead of you like a devouring fire. He will destroy them; he will subdue them before you. And you will drive them out and annihilate them quickly, as the Lord has promised you.

4 After the Lord your God has driven them out before you, do not say to yourself, “The Lord has brought me here to take possession of this land because of my righteousness.” No, it is on account of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is going to drive them out before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the Lord your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. 6 Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Here in this passage, we see that the Israelites are being reminded that it is God who is directing this picture. It will be through God’s might and His judgment that they will conquer that Promised Land. They will conquer the land because God made promises to the ancestors of these people that they would be granted the Promised Land. They will conquer the land because God is executing His judgment on the wickedness of the nations of Canaan.

That’s the takeaway this morning is that God is sovereign. It is He who guides and directs our steps. It is He who brings together special people at special place at a special time. Let us celebrate the moments that He does that for us. He goes before us. He brings the right people together at the right time at the right place to accomplish what He has planned for us at this moment at this place with these people. It is to Him that we look as we see what He has done. It is nothing but God that gets the glory for bringing it all together to achieve His purposes. We are participants in His plan. We do our part. And, then we stand amazed at what God has done.